BJP leader rescued from Kedarnath says 20,000 dead

Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashwani Choubey and his family, who were stranded in a temple in Kedarnath, have been rescued and brought to Dehradun by a helicopter on Thursday.

While Choubey, his wife, two sons and their families have been rescued, his two relatives, a bodyguard and personal assistant are missing and are feared to have lost their lives in the flash flood and rains in Uttarakhand, BJP spokesman of Bhagalpur Dev Kumar Pandey said.

He recalled the horror of spending four nights inside the Kedarnath temple by saying that he was surrounded by dead bodies and he saw people dying in front of his eyes.
"I was stuck in Kedarnath for four nights. Five members of my family are missing. I have spent nights on bodies. More than 800 people were there inside the temple with me. Many died in front of my eyes inside the temple," he said.
He blamed the state government for the situation and said, "Bodies were floating inside the temple. There is no help from state government. I have never seen such calamity in my life. More than 15000 to 20000 people have died,” Chaubey said.

Choubey is a legislator from Bhagalpur and was the health minister in the Nitish Kumar government before he was sacked along with 10 other BJP ministers as part of the Janata Dal-United severing ties with the BJP.

The MLA along with 14 others -- including a local priest, three bodyguards and relatives -- had gone to Kedarnath to perform 'pind daan' of his parents.

They were staying in a rest house near Kedarnath temple when heavy rains triggered landslides on Tuesday night. Choubey and others managed to take shelter in the temple from where they were airlifted to Guptkashi by a state government helicopter.

Pandey said Bhagalpur MP Shahnawaz Hussain and BJP Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha Ravishankar Prasad were constantly in touch with Uttarakhand government and officials for the safety of Choubey and his family.

Choubey and the others are expected to reach Delhi on way to Bhagalpur in a day or two, he said.

Image: Heavy rains have washed away the road beyond the Pinder valley bridge in Uttarakhand ' Photograph: Kailash Devradi/downtoearth.org.in